Remote Desktop to an Amazon EC2 Instanceby Jeff Hunter, Sr. Database AdministratorContents Introduction Add GNOME Desktop and X Window System Install NX Free Edition for Linux to Amazon EC2 Instance Install NX Client on Your Local Machine Log In to Remote Graphical Desktop using NX About the AuthorIntroductionIn most cases, the Linux servers I setup asAmazon EC2instances are used to host the Oracle database software and only require use of the operating system Command-Line Interface (CLI). This is beneficial because I only need register an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) with aMinimalorBasic ServerOS installation and can add only those required Linux packages needed to support the database. However, there are situations where I need to access a graphical desktop in order to install or run certain Graphical User Interface (GUI) applications.This guide provides the steps needed to add the GNOME Desktop to a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.2 AMI where the OS was installed without the X Window System. Although there are several options to enable a remote desktop on an EC2 instance, I prefer to useNX Free Edition (FreeNX).FreeNX is a program which allows users to run remote X11 sessions from clients running on Windows, Linux, Mac OS X and Solaris platforms to servers running, at present, on Linux or Solaris.This guide assumes you have anAmazon Web Services accountand know how to create new EC2 instances from an AMI, key-pairs and security groups within theAWS Management Console.Add GNOME Desktop and X Window SystemThe Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.2 AMI, like most community AMIs, does not include the GNOME Desktop or X Window System software. In this section, the required GUI packages will be installed to the running instance usingyum.Install Desktop Packages# yum -y groupinstall Desktop Desktop Platform X Window System FontsYou can also install the following optional GUI packages.# yum -y groupinstall Graphical Administration Tools# yum -y groupinstall Internet Browser# yum -y groupinstall General Purpose Desktop# yum -y groupinstall Office Suite and Productivity# yum -y groupinstall Graphics Creation ToolsWhen usingyum groupinstall, thegroupinstalloption only installsdefaultandmandatorypackages from the group. There are times when you also want to includeoptionalpackages within a group. I have not figured out (yet) how to control which package types to install (group package policy) from the command-line usingyum. The only method I know of to also includeoptionalpackages is to edit the/etc/yum.conffile and add the following to themainsection:group_package_types=default mandatory optionalThe reason I mention this is because I wanted to install Terminal emulator for the X Window System (xterm) which is under the group Legacy X Window System compatibility.xtermhappens to be an optional package and did not get installed until I addedgroup_package_types=default mandatory optionalto/etc/yum.conf.# yum -y groupinstall Legacy X Window System compatibilityI did find a plug-in foryumthat allows users to specify which package types within a package group should be installed when usingyum groupinstall.http:/projects.robinbowes.com/yum-grouppackagetypes/tracEnable GNOMESince the server was previously running on CLI mode, we need to change the initialization process for the machine to boot up in GUI mode.Open/etc/inittabusing a text editor and change following line:id:3:initdefault:To:id:5:initdefault:After making the change, reboot the machine.# init 6Install NX Free Edition for Linux to Amazon EC2 InstanceIn this section, NX Free Edition for Linux - x86_64 will be installed on the EC2 instance.RHEL EC2 InstanceDownload and install the NX Free Edition for Linux package on the Amazon EC2 instance fromNoMachine. NX Free Edition for Linux - i386 NX Free Edition for Linux - x86_64Installation of NX Server for Linux requires the download and installation of three packages: client, node and server. The client is needed because it ships libraries used by the node. The node is needed because it ships tools needed by the server. Furthermore, the SSH server daemon (SSHD) needs to be up and running on each of the NX Node machines since NX relies on the mechanism provided by the SSH subsystem for handling user authentication.# rpm -i nxclient-3.5.0-7.x86_64.rpm# rpm -i nxnode-3.5.0-9.x86_64.rpm# rpm -i nxserver-3.5.0-11.x86_64.rpmIf you intend to support printing from the NX session, you need to set proper permissions on your IPP backend for IPP CUPS printing.# chmod 755 /usr/lib/cups/backend/ippThe NX service can be controlled by the command/usr/NX/bin/nxserver -status|-start|-stop|-restart. For example,rootip-10-29-162-247 # /usr/NX/bin/nxserver -statusNX 900 Connecting to server .NX 110 NX Server is running.NX 9